By Gwen Samuel
EAGnews.org contributor

MERIDEN, Conn. – Genuine education reform in Connecticut was short lived.

On May 15, Gov. Dannel Malloy signed an education reform bill into law. Lawmakers patted each other on the back, while the media kept telling us the law was “historic” and “sweeping.”

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But my organization, the Connecticut Parents Union, didn’t buy the hype. We didn’t join in the celebration.

The CTPU, along with our attorney and other community-based organizations, has been paying very close attention to how the new laws are being implemented, in order to see what the “real” intentions of the law are.

Parents and guardians did not have to wait long. It only took six weeks to see that the Status Quo has taken the same old irresponsible system and dressed in shiny “new ed reform” attire.

Here are four recent developments that prove the Status Quo is still firmly in control of Connecticut’s public schools.

1. Let’s begin with May 29, 2012. That’s the day U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Connecticut to announce that we received a No Child Left Behind waiver, based on nothing more than a bunch of education reform promises to do better.

One of these reforms is the teacher evaluation that will be “piloted” at a handful of schools beginning next fall. It’s important to note the teacher unions agreed to these “evaluation pilots” under the “conditions” that they can recommend changes to the evaluation process if they don’t like it. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house!

One has to wonder how much the teacher unions agreed to dish out in campaign contributions to ensure their “feel good” teacher evaluation passed the Connecticut General Assembly vote.

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The evaluation process does not address seniority and parent input is an “optional” provision. That means longevity will continue to trump competence during times of layoffs. Example: a 15-year gym teacher will still outlast an effective five-year reading teacher in a school that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress in reading!  That’s not exactly the prescription we need to fix our failing schools.

Furthermore, parental input being “optional” is ridiculous. If Compulsory education laws are going to mandate parents send their child to a particular school, then parents should have the power to review both teacher and principal evaluations and weigh in on the evaluation process.

2. On June 8, 2012, the Waterbury school board, under the “approval” of Sec. Duncan’s NCLB waiver, recommends eliminating after-school tutoring programs for low-income students and school choice programs. Board members say the programs are being cut because they’re not “popular” with families.

Tutoring and choice programs should be kept or tossed based on whether they’re effective or not.  But the board doesn’t know if these programs are working or not because they don’t evaluate outcomes.

The school district doesn’t have money for its tutoring program, but it does have enough money to hand out pay raises to teachers and school staff – even though Waterbury has not made AYP in over 15 schools!

So the new reform laws “earned” Connecticut the NCLB waiver, which allowed these cuts to child-centered programs, even while adults are getting pay raises. Really!

3. On June 19, 2012, less than two weeks later, an effective minority Waterbury principal, in a school with a minority student population of more than 95 percent, was told by state and local education officials that he would be replaced by the state’s new Commissioner’s Network.

(Editor’s note: The Commissioner’s Network provides “a system of state support and intervention for the lowest-performing schools in the state,” according to the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now. “Network schools will work with the State Department of Education and its turnaround team on developing specific interventions and support strategies that can turn these struggling schools into successful ones.”)

While parents applaud the Commissioner’s Network and its rapid response interventions, parents did not agree to have the Commissioner bypass the statutory power given to parents as part of the 2010 School Governance Council law – Connecticut’s version of the parent trigger law.

Let me be very clear: Through the School Governance Council law, parents have the legal right to participate in the decision making process that will affect the educational experiences of their children, who attend these “network” schools.

The state must not be allowed to side-step parental input, but that’s exactly what’s happening in Waterbury.

4. The final piece of evidence of the status quo’s power came during a June 20, 2012 press conference, when New Haven city officials announced that they were turning over one of its low-performing schools to the local teachers union, the New Haven Federation of Teachers.

The union takeover of High School in the Community (HSC) is being billed as an “experiment” in school reform. Union teachers will write their own curriculum, giving them greater “flexibility” over what kids are learning, according to the New Haven Independent.

This is a major concern to the CTPU because it was New Haven’s teachers union – the American Federation of Teachers – that hosted a national training session about how to exclude parents from the decision making process. It was entitled, “How Connecticut Diffused the Parent Trigger.” That gives a very big clue as to what New Haven parents can expect from the HSC’s teacher union “experiment.”

The unions often complain that parents are not engaged in their children’s education. If that’s so, then why do they go to such lengths to keep us away from the table when school improvement is being discussed?

The real answer is that the Status Quo knows parents would demand school environments, accountability and answers as to why we’re pouring money into a system that doesn’t measure effectiveness.

News flash! You can’t meaningfully reform failing schools without having families serve as decision-makers alongside teachers, administrators and community members.

Let me be clear: Connecticut children are NOT for sale to the highest bidder, and parents will show that we mean business in protecting our children’s right to equitable access to high quality educational options.

We will ensure our children’s constitutional educational and equal protection rights are protected, either at the voting polls or in the courts.

The struggle continues.

-Gwen Samuel is president of the Connecticut Parents Union, and has agreed to periodically share her thoughts about education reform with our readers.